China’s Accounting Law: Legal Liabilities Stipulated in the Accounting Law

China’s Accounting Law: Legal Liabilities Stipulated in the Accounting Law
(I) Liabilities of accounting firms, accountants, chiefs, and persons directly responsible for violating the Accounting Law
(1) In case of any of the following acts in violation of the Accounting Law, the people's government at or above the county level shall make an order for rectification within a specified period of time, a fine of not less than RMB 3,000 but not more than RMB 50,000 may be imposed on the entity, a fine of not less than RMB 2,000 but not more than RMB 20,000 may be imposed on the directly responsible chief and other directly responsible persons, and an administrative penalty shall be imposed on the actor by his employer or a competent authority if the actor is a State functionary:
① Failure to establish accounting books in accordance with the law;
② Establishing secret accounting books;
③ Failure to fill in or obtain original vouchers in accordance with the regulations, or failure to comply with the regulations in filling in or obtaining original vouchers;
④ Registering accounting books based on unaudited accounting vouchers or registering accounting books that do not comply with regulations;
⑤ Changing the accounting method at will;
⑥ Providing different accounting data users with financial reports prepared based on different preparing basis;
⑦ Failure to use texts or functional currencies in accounting records in accordance with regulations;
⑧ Failure to keep accounting documents in accordance with regulations, resulting in damage or loss of the accounting documents;
⑨ Failure to establish and implement internal accounting supervision systems of the entity in accordance with regulations, refusal to allow inspection conducted in accordance with the law, or failure to provide truthful accounting information and relevant details; or
⑩ The appointment of accountants in violation of the provisions of the Accounting Law.
If any of the above acts constitutes a crime, criminal liability shall be incurred in accordance with the law. Where an accountant commits one of the above-mentioned acts with severe consequence, the financial authority of the people's government at or above the county level shall revoke their accounting qualification certificate. Where there are other provisions in applicable laws regarding the punishment of the above-mentioned acts, such provisions shall prevail.